Liquid compositions comprising copolymer mildness actives
The present invention relates to liquid detergent compositions comprising anionic/amphoteric surfactant systems. Addition of specific EO-PO copolymers wherein ratio of anionic to EO-PO polymer is defined has been found to remarkably enhance mildness. In a second embodiment, the invention relates to a method for enhancing mildness in liquid detergent compositions comprising anionic surfactant by adding said defined EO-PO polymers.
Latest Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc. Patents:
Claims
1. A liquid detergent composition comprising:
- (a) a detergent surfactant system comprising
- (1) 3% to 30% by wt. total composition anionic or mixtures of anionic surfactants wherein the anionic surfactant comprises 50% or greater of the detergent active system; and
- (2) 0.1% to 20% by wt. total composition comprising one or more amphoteric surfactants, and
- (b) 0.1 to 20% by wt. of a copolymer comprising both oxyethylene and oxypropylene groups;
- wherein the ratio of anionic or anionics to copolymer comprising oxyethylene and oxypropylene groups is 1:1 to 10:1;
- wherein the copolymer is defined by having a hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) of >12; as having the percentage of ethylene oxide group comprising the copolymer being >50% to 90%; and as having a molecular weight of 6,000 to 25,000.
2. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the anionic surfactant or surfactants comprises 5% to 20% of the composition.
3. A composition according to claim 1, wherein amphoteric comprises 3% to 10% of the composition.
4. A composition according to claim 1, wherein HLB>18.
5. A composition according to claim 1, wherein Ethylene oxide groups comprises 60% to 85% of the copolymer.
6. A composition according to claim 1, wherein MW of copolymer is 8,000 to 2,000.
7. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the copolymer is terminated with an ethylene oxide group.
8. A method of enhancing mildness of a liquid detergent composition comprising a surfactant system comprising 3% to 30% by wt. anionic or mixture of anionics which method comprises adding 0.1 to 20% by wt. of a copolymer comprising ethylene oxide and propylene oxide groups to said composition;
- wherein the ratio of anionic or anionics to copolymer is 1:1 to 10:1;
- wherein the copolymer comprising ethylene oxide and propylene oxide groups is defined by having a hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) of >12; as having the percentage of ethylene oxide groups comprising the copolymer being >50% to 90%; and as having a molecular weight of 6,000 to 25,000.
5064640 | November 12, 1991 | Kleber et al. |
5073363 | December 17, 1991 | Pellico |
5230824 | July 27, 1993 | Carlson, Sr. et al. |
5368845 | November 29, 1994 | Gaffar et al. |
5604189 | February 18, 1997 | Zhang et al. |
- McCutcheon's Emulsifiers & Detergents North America Ed.; N.J. 1983, p. 203.
Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 18, 1996
Date of Patent: May 26, 1998
Assignee: Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc. (New York, NY)
Inventors: Mengtao He (Wayne, NJ), Michael Fair (Hackensack, NJ), Michael Massaro (Congers, NY)
Primary Examiner: Margaret Medley
Attorney: Ronald A. Koatz
Application Number: 8/616,945
International Classification: A61K 31075;